The WORST book for improving bass technique (Bass Player's Book Club #1)

[@astika81]

Your opening monologue is worth more than many bass education sites and KZbin channels.

[@FBT]

Thanks for the kind words, that really means a lot to hear that you've found the video helpful!

[@omg_wtf]

Well said. I've never understood why anyone would warm up with anything other than scales, arpeggios and/or slowed down songs. It's why I always used Czerny and not Hanon on piano

[@soulstart89]

What a interesting watch. You got a like straight away when you referenced 1984 lol. The exercise for fingers 3 and 4 really gets them to work. Glad I found you. Happy new year 🎉

[@FBT]

Glad you enjoyed it. Good luck with the doublethink!

[@onutube6392]

Didn't have any books when I started playing bass. I just watched a few videos on KZbin, and started learning some punk covers.

[@MrClassicmetal]

Great video. I've always had issues with non-musical exercises, and questioned whether those were really a must. Instinctively I've felt that for example focusing on arpeggios made much more sense. And yes, when it comes to your hands that "no pain, no gain" attitude is absolutely nuts! I used to play guitar, where indeed 1 finger per fret is normal, and that's due to the scale length. And I did notice that a lot of good bass players do not stretch their fingers a lot. There's more shifting involved. Your video really makes perfect sense, and confirmed a lot of suspicions. Thanks!👍🏼

[@jakehoneywill1]

Good video. Very grounding. Look forward to more

[@chino_jap0nes]

13:27 I’m so glad I’ve found out about this

[@doctorwhok9p103]

Great topic. I felt the same way about the book Bass Gym : 101

[@defytones]

damn. my bass instructor gave me the bass fitness pdf and I started doing it today but couldn't help but check if anybody was reviewing this book and to my surprise it came out with this title lmao. The first thing I noticed about that book was exactly the same thing. Exercises on the book sounded like literal shit but I was doing it since it's just for strength & dexterity. Thank you for your thoughts on this. Great content. Gained a subscriber my man

[@FBT]

Sounds like you had a lucky escape! All the strength and dexterity you need will come with time, patience and playing things that are actually music...

[@benjaminwescott258]

It's nearing Christmas and I'm compiling a wish list for Santa which will definitely include at least one bass chops or general theory book. I appreciate you debunking non-musical practices that I've been duped into thinking were helpful, but let's hear about your positive book reviews!

[@raphaelduraes2129]

Hey do you have the audios from the "Fingerboard Harmony for Bass"by Gary Willis? I'm a beginner bass player and i want to start using this book. But I can't find the audios from the book. I live in Brasil and here , I can't find this book.

[@FBT]

I don't really use the audio tracks when practising with the book, I just use the iReal Pro app to create basic backing tracks so I can change the speed that I'm working at - most of the backing tracks are simple two-chord loops, so it doesn't take much to recreate them in an app.

[@raphaelduraes2129]

@@FBT Thanks for replying! I will use the same software. I was looking for people who has the book because they have a code in that. That i use to download in the Hal Leonard library. Thanks for saying your method!

[@Kevin-roedigerDe]

Nice new video series!!!

[@mule71]

Ironically, this video was interrupted by a Yousician advert right at the Monty Python clip.

[@FBT]

Ha! This has made my day.

[@davetuttle9701]

Starting on the Bb do you have the group of three's written out? Thanks for the excellent video

[@FBT]

Glad you enjoyed the video, Dave. The link at the very bottom of the description has all the exercises written out; I start the groups for the A to get myself away from always starting everything on the root, so that's how it appears in the notation.

[@davetuttle9701]

@@FBT Thank you very much! Hope all is well with you and yours

[@BassTheGroove]

More about the other books - thank you for your great content (as always)

[@joninawhitecoat]

Though you may cover this in later videos, I saw that you have Right Hand Drive by Damian Erskine; have you persevered with using more than two fingers for extra picking speed and dexterity, like Mr Erskine, Matt Garrison and the like. I listen to a lot of metal and there are a few bass players like Alex Webster, Nick Schendzielos and Erland Caspersen using 3 and sometimes 4 fingers for picking speed.

[@FBT]

I attempted to adopt Gary Willis' 3-finger approach for a few weeks in 2005ish but was too lazy to see it through. As for the Garrison/Erskine 4 digit technique, I could never get it to come through at a reasonable volume so abandoned it - it's also one of those things where unless you're really fluent then the listener hears the technique rather than the music. I'll end up covering my right hand opinions in a later video, but (spoiler alert!) Right Hand Drive sadly didn't make it into the Book Club.

[@joninawhitecoat]

I tried the 3-fingers for a while but - as you did - getting the volume even and reasonable and retaining your dynamics and muting is a nightmare. Jaco could play as fast with 2-fingers as I'd ever want or need to so I've since just worked on being better with 2.

[@johndaniel4597]

Excellent video which emphasises musical ideas over pointless and potentially frustrating mechanical finger waggling.

[@jaimitojoe7747]

Lol just bought my first bass and bought that book too 🤣🤣

[@EmiPianoMX]

Oh! Hanon for bassists!

[@FBT]

We have to do something to try to keep up with you guys! Czerny also works pretty well...

[@jpilot07]

LMMMMFFAAAAAOOOOO AT DRAKE JAB!!!! LOOLOLOLOL

[@FBT]

Considering that Larry Graham is his uncle things could have turned out so much better...

[@juanadecarranza1494]

te amo

[@onutube6392]

I really hope you don't say bass grimoire Edit: Oh. Never heard of it.

[@marcusparnell2403]

❤️❤️❤️

[@dangeroustoaster2688]

3 ads in 5 minutes…

[@magnuswiege312]

I'm apologize in advance if I misinterpret your guidelines, but it's probably not a good idea tell your followers to disregard the importance of technique and "studying music" before defining the terms correctly and it's context. Technique is the inevitable skill you need to make a good or great sound on your instrument which is an absolute neccesity if you wan't to play good or even great music someday for an audience that probably feel like shit most of the week stuck in their heads and life situation like most. of us moore or less, and wouldn't it feel great to atleast try to give your full attentive focus on the music itself? Even if it stresses your ego and make you uncomfortable to cooporate with another time source It's worth it in the end and vill get easier, compare it to taking a jog, It sucks at first probably but you will never regret it. Peace!

[@FBT]

That wasn't quite what I was suggesting. I meant to make the point that people should use passages of real music to develop their technique, rather than buying books of finger permutation exercises that have no musical use as soon as you start to interact with other musicians. Technique is extremely important, but many people that I encounter treat it as a separate entity from the music that they want to play, which results in hours of wasted practice time.